How to Get Your New Website Discovered

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A search query of the term “time travel” on Nov. 14, 2016 using the search engine Google yielded about 102,000,000 results in .57 seconds.1

With trillions of documents available on the internet2, it is quite astonishing how search engines like Google and Bing are able to find (via “web crawlers”) new and existing pages, and organize all of them into an index. Considering these sheer numbers, it may not be surprising to question how a new site can be found online.

Fortunately, search engines crawl the internet regularly and will eventually find your web pages - assuming you have built a site with great content, proper meta tags and quality backlinks.

So how do you know if Google and Bing have discovered you?

STEP 1

Check to see if your new site is already indexed by simply entering the following in a quick search query:

Google: “site: [your website address here]”

Bing: “URL: [your website address here]”

If your site shows up on their search engine results page (SERP), your site has been indexed. If not, it’s highly possible that it hasn’t been discovered yet (see box below). Read Step 2 on how to speed up the process:

STEP 2

Submit your website to Google and Bing. Here’s how:

Perhaps you need more? If you’re interested in learning about the data Google and Bing have aggregated on your site, such as search terms associated with your URL, how many people are visiting your site, and which pages are most popular, go to Step 3.

STEP 3

Sign up for their free service that analyzes and tracks your site’s performance.

In addition, this service can help you discover any issues with your site that could affect your rankings and user experience. Here’s how to register:

Google Search Console

Sign up for Google Search Console with your Google account. (If you don’t have a Google account, you will need to create one.)

Once you sign in, click on Add a Property.

Verify that you’re the owner of the site by one of the following verification methods:

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